War Machine
by Landiana
Summary: On the day the sun went out he was there. On the day the sun went out he saved my soul. First in the Landslide series


**This is the first in a new series of Veronica Mars/Doctor Who fanfiction, a pairing which has captured my imagination!**

War Machine

When the sky went black in the middle of a sunny California day Veronica was understandably nervous. She checked the internet and nothing unusual had been predicted that day – the next full solar eclipse over Neptune was not meant to occur until August 2045. The light had not faded, there were no clouds to be seen in the sky in the moments before the darkness came. At one moment it was as bright as any California summer day that she had ever seen, and then darkness. The sky had gone dark, and people panicked. The streets of Neptune had been chaotic as people tried to get home, tried to find their families, and tried to make sense of what the hell had been going on. Looting, violence, assault had characterised the town.

Veronica had been at Mars Investigations, going over a couple of cases that her father had handed off to her while he was away on holiday with Alicia. Veronica was a full partner in the business now that she had graduated from college, and was looking for useful ways in which to spend her time until she was old enough to apply to the FBI. The sky had gone dark and she had gone out to look, her curiosity overwhelming any kind of instinct for natural preservation, reasoning that she would be able to get back into the office if things got too hairy. She had grabbed Mr. Sparky, a flashlight, had tucked her phone into her pocket and had walked cautiously down to the ground floor.

Outside was madness. People were screaming as cars crashed into one another, and people without any kind of light walked into walls. Veronica watched from the relative safety of the doorway, caution urging her to stay put until she could assess the situation. She heard a faint hum as the street lights attempted to come on, but the best they appeared to be able to manage was a faint glow which gave some definition to the darkness, but no real details. Veronica watched as a man grabbed a woman from behind, pulling her hair to silence her, and could not help but go to try and aid the woman. She held out her taser and jabbed it into the back of the other woman's attacker. He screamed and let go of the brunette, who was crying.

"Go!" Veronica shouted at the women when she did nothing but sob on the floor next to where her attacker groaned. "Go home!"

Hands grabbed Veronica from behind, pulling her into a hard male body. She struggled against him, kicking his shins and attempting to elbow him in the stomach. He pulled her taser out of her hand, and sent her flashlight rolling away from the two of them. One hand clasped her securely round both arms, while the other hand pulled her hair back violently. His lips found her ear, and she could feel his breath against it, hard guttural pants. She could also feel breath against her neck, indicating another attacker standing beside the first, breathing on her ear. The voice that whispered in her ear sent shivers down her spine.

"Now what can I do with you girly?" The voice was not human. While it spoke English, the tone was reptilian, and they appeared to struggle with the th sound in particular. "Aren't you just one tasty little morsel."

"Letting me go would be my suggestion," Veronica said, not allowing her fear to fill her voice. "I'm sure that I'd be far too chewy, too little fat. I'd be hell on your digestive system."

The man standing behind her hissed his dissent. She felt his breath hot on her neck.

"I very much doubt that," the voice said with a reptilian chuckle.

"I believe the lady said no," another voice responded through the darkness. Veronica could just make out the outline of a man.

Light suddenly shone through the darkness and Veronica was greeted by the sight of a man of medium height and built, wearing a welding mask. He carried a welding torch, and a small box which appeared to be the source of the light. The person holding onto Veronica pushed her away from himself and flinched back from the light. Veronica stumbled forward slightly before righting herself and turning around, so that she no longer had her back to her would be assailant. She almost wished that she hadn't.

The thing that had grabbed her was exactly that: a thing. Its skin was a mottled brown and green, and the skin appeared to be flaking off as it moved. It wore a sleeveless jerkin and dark trousers, and its legs appeared to be thicker than they should be. Its neck was abnormally long, and its face was... grotesque. It had two different mouths, underneath one another, and each was twisted into a grimace, sharp blue coloured teeth showing through. Its eyes were large and a deep red, and it had no discernable nose. Veronica fought the urge to scream at the sight in front of her and turned to her unlikely rescuer. He flipped the visor up to show a very attractive man, in that unconventional geeky way, with dark hair which hung above one side of his forehead. His eyes were a deep green which glinted with mirth, as he grinned at her.

"Now, isn't that better!" he exclaimed, smiling widely as he took in the surroundings. "I do so hate to be left in the dark."

The creature hissed at him.

"You will pay, Doctor." It said through its top mouth. "The light angers me!"

"Ah, I thought you might say that," the mysterious 'Doctor' said as he turned to Veronica. "I'd say that now would be a very good time to run!"

And that was how she came to be running beside a very attractive man who was wearing a brown suit, a white shirt and a red bow tie.

Veronica followed the man's lead as he used his strange light box as a torch to direct their way to a police telephone box, the likes of which she had never seen before. When the man got out a key and threw the door open, she was immediately alarmed by his motioning for her to enter the box. She stood back for a second.

"Trust me, your attacker is not far behind us, and he is bringing friends along. Get into the box," he said, exasperated as he gesticulated a little wildly. Veronica looked into his eyes for a long second, before doing what she was asked.

Veronica was immediately shocked by what greeted her when she entered the box. The interior appeared to be some sort of control room, and was so much larger than could be physically possible. She stood, dumbfounded, inside the doorway.

"Yes, yes, it's bigger on the inside than on the outside. Really, why does no one ever have a different first impression of her? How about 'wow what a beautiful machine' or 'what a rakishly handsome man that driver is'," the man continued to talk as he walked around her, ran up some steps and started playing with the controls of the box. Veronica finally connected her mind to her mouth, and asked the first thing which was on her mind, other than the question of why she had trusted this man enough to enter what she believed was a small telephone box with no understanding of why or who he even was. Veronica was not a trusting person, so her actions were a startling revelation.

"And who are you, exactly?" Veronica asked suspiciously as she watched the man rush around the console.

"I'm the Doctor," he said simply, as if that should encompass anything she needed to know.

"Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor."

"Okay then," Veronica said, lifting an eyebrow as she took in his whole appearance. He seemed to understand exactly why.

"Bowties are cool," he said, his tone matter of fact as he rushed around the machine, pulling levers and pushing buttons.

"Maybe for Jimmy Olsen," Veronica snarked as she took a few steps forward.

"Ah, a DC comics reference. I believe that I have old back copies of them. Or are they new? Your point of reference amuses me nonetheless. You may want to sit down for this." He indicated to a sofa, which she confusedly walked to. She felt the box shudder as it appeared to begin to move, and cylinders started pumping, noise filling the room.

"Before you ask, this is a TARDIS," the Doctor said as she opened her mouth to ask him exactly that. He came to sit next to her, pulling the welding mask off his head, looking at it in confusion, and then throwing it behind himself. "Stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space."

"A time machine?"

"She's so much more than that," the Doctor said emphatically. "She travels throughout all of time and space, and takes me along for the ride to the far reaches of the galaxy."

"We're not going to the far reaches of the galaxy, are we?" Veronica asked, mildly concerned. "Because there are people I'm rather fond of, caught up with whatever that thing was."

"That thing," the Doctor said as he leant back on the sofa and scrutinised her deeply. "was a Siltherien. Vicious creatures, can't stand any form of light, hence the blanket that they appear to have manufactured over your city. They eat human flesh, that is what the second mouth is for, and they travel throughout space in search of humanoid life forms to eat. And we are simply setting down in a place which will be far less dangerous than where I first landed. Now, where are my manners? Who are you?" he grinned rakishly as he asked the last question and Veronica could not help but smile.

"Veronica Mars," she answered as she too leant back on the sofa.

"Veronica Mars," he said, his voice tinged with nostalgia and wistfulness, as if he was trying to remember who exactly she was. "A ha!" his voice rose in volume as he appeared to remember.

"Veronica Mars. One of the best FBI agents of the early 21st century. Known for solving unsolvable crimes, and dealing with more obscure cases. Or at least you will do. I assume you haven't signed up yet." His face fell. "I do hope I haven't spoiled anything. You were planning on joining the FBI, weren't you? You'd be rather good!"

"Yes, I was planning on it." Veronica's grin grew. The Doctor's enthusiasm was infectious. "I'm just not old enough yet to apply. Apparently I need more 'life experience'" she used her fingers to make quote marks in the air. The Doctor's face twisted into a raspberry, pursing his lips and blowing air out quickly.

"What tosh!" He exclaimed. "Ha, life experience! What does that exactly mean?"

"Don't ask me. I can honestly say that I have no less 'life experience' than people twice my age," Veronica huffed at the injustice of it all. As she did so the machine shuddered again, which Veronica took to indicate that they had landed.

"Well, Veronica shall we go and see where we've landed," the Doctor enthused as he jumped up. Veronica followed him to the door and looked out under the arm that he used to throw the door open, to see what had been deemed a 'safe' spot in Neptune, although privately Veronica questioned the very existence of such a place. Neptune, the home of the rich and famous was dangerous at the best of times, and these creatures and the darkness they brought had just made the usually undercover danger crystal clear. Veronica could not resist the urge to snort when she saw the chosen location and the Doctor looked at her in askance.

"Neptune High," Veronica sighed. "_This_ is the place which is deemed the safest in town?"

The Doctor withdrew his arm and jumped back from the door, grabbing his light cube to lighten the hallway which the TARDIS had landed in.

"Well the TARDIS calculated the distance away from the main group of Siltherien who are gathered around the generator which provides such a cover for them, and then found the most defensible location. She's really very clever!" the Doctor exclaimed as he leapt back down to grin enthusiastically at her. Veronica looked back out of the door sceptically. Too many bad memories of her time in high school coloured her opinion of the place, making it difficult for her to connect it in any way with a feeling of safety.

"How many of these things are there?" Veronica asked as the thought suddenly occurred to her. These monsters could at that moment be rampaging through the town attempting to feed off the people she cared about. She was very glad that her Dad was out of town, and that Wallace had returned to Africa with the Invisible Children programme for the summer. But Mac, Parker and Piz remained in town, as did Logan. Logan who, a darker voice in her head said, seemed to be a magnet for trouble, with a heroic streak to boot. While their relationship had not worked out in the long run she still cared about him and wanted to make sure that the damn fool wasn't trying to be heroic.

"Twenty, I believe. A Hood of Siltherien's is made up of twenty one and one of them was killed implementing the shields. And you should really call them by their proper name. Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself. Wonderful character, Dumbledore. Very wise." The Doctor continued to talk to Veronica with such enthusiasm and high energy that she couldn't help but be drawn in by him.

"So what are we going to do now?" Veronica asked as she took a few steps back into the TARDIS and turned to face the Doctor straight on.

"Do? Ah yes, what to do? Can't have unknown alien life forms running around eating people. It's icky, and humans don't 'discover'" he made air quotes with a face, "this race for another 200 years. Bad show to go and ruin it all now, eh Veronica." He grinned as he nudged her.

"Icky?" was all that she managed to get past her resistant lips.

"Yes, icky," the Doctor said as if the word explained everything. When she remained bemused he elaborated. "Icky. The murder of humans, or any murder really is morally reprehensible, but the devouring of life flesh is particularly unappealing. Icky. Got it?" Veronica nodded and he rubbed his hands together.

"Excellent. Glad to know that we're on the same page."

"Yes," Veronica said, amused. "It would be tragic if we had differing views on the viability of eating human flesh."

The Doctor nodded seriously.

"These are big issues which can cause sticking points in any relationship. Best to air them now." He grinned at her and took big steps towards the door. "Now I think we should scope out the area, and come up with a very cunning plan, which will likely in all events fall at the first hurdle and force us to improvise. I do love improvisation." He gestured to Veronica to follow him, and then he walked through the door of the TARDIS into the hallways of Neptune High.

It was eerie, walking through the hallways within which she had been tortured by her classmates, particularly in this darkness. She walked close behind the Doctor and the light provided by what she had dubbed his light cube as he stopped and started along the corridor, inspecting certain things intently, before moving rapidly down the hallway. The items he looked at had no significance to Veronica. A light fixture. A dead computer. A series of classrooms. The Doctor threw open the door of the gym and smiled widely. He turned to Veronica and grabbed her hand, pulling her through the doorway.

"I believe I have a plan my dear Miss Mars!" He proclaimed excitedly. Veronica looked around the room that the Doctor had pulled her into and raised an eyelid. They were standing in the doorway of the darkened gym, and all she was able to see was the blurred outline of the bleachers and what might have been a basketball hoop. She turned towards the Doctor, her expression questioning what his plan could possibly be. He did not hesitate in enlightening her.

"I am going to make some more of those light cubes and have them on a time release, so they shine light when I want them to We will then move the TARDIS into this room and I will send out a challenge to the Siltherien that if they want to have this place then they will have to face me. They are a warrior race, and so will not be able to refuse. Yes, I believe this is the best course of action. What to do first? Hmm, yes." The Doctor fell deep into thought as he mused aloud. "Well, that won't work. Yes, trap them in a circle of light."

"Just to clarify," Veronica said, breaking the Doctor out of his daze. "We are going to call these creatures out, challenge them and then trap them in a circle of _light?__"_ she couldn't hide the scepticism in her voice.

"Veronica I do believe you are a sceptic! Probably just as well, one of us needs to be a pessimist!" he turned his cheerful grin completely towards her and took one of her hands. "Don't worry, Veronica Mars, everything is going to turn out quite well. Trust me."

Against her better judgement Veronica felt herself being swayed by his warm smile and cheerful demeanour. For someone who really didn't trust easily she couldn't help but put her faith in this very strange man. She nodded slightly and smiled at him.

"Excellent. We should get going, shouldn't we!" The Doctor said as he began running back down the hall, pulling Veronica with him. She was beginning to suspect that the man couldn't do anything remotely sedately.

Veronica looked around herself as the Doctor moved things around the gym, climbing up the bleachers, hanging down from seemingly unstable ropes in order to place the newly made light cubes in strategic positions.

"Veronica Mars," The Doctor called from where he was stood precariously balanced on top of a pile of chairs. "Could you come here please?"

She sighed and walked over to where he was balanced. For the past hour she had been running around after him, grabbing the seemingly inconsequential objects he had asked of her.

"Could you please just call me Veronica," she asked him as she handed him the tangle of wires he pointed at with one hand. He took hold of the wires and looked down at her with his inscrutable eyes for a long moment.

"Any particular reason?" he asked as he went back to his work, which as far as Veronica could tell was poking wires into the wall in a random formation.

"Just brings back memories," she said, shivering slightly in the cold. The Doctor nodded and continued with his work. He finished his wiring and jumped down from the chairs.

"Well, now all we need to do is call out to the Siltherien," he said cheerfully as he took hold of her hand once again and pulled her along with him back towards the TARDIS.

"Oh yeah, all we have to do is bait the human eating monsters, no problem," Veronica muttered under her breath. The Doctor merely laughed and continued onwards.

"Exactly my dear Miss Mars, exactly."

Veronica stood in the middle of the dark room, desperately trying to dampen down her nerves. The Doctor was standing a little in front of her and to the left, holding his sonic screwdriver, waiting for the right moment to activate it, once all of the Siltherien had entered the large gym. There would be a few long minutes where they would both be exposed to these creatures, and Veronica wasn't exactly relishing the thought of that. She felt the Doctor reach back to her, and take hold of her hand, squeezing it gently. She looked up to see him smiling softly at her.

"It's going to be alright Veronica. I won't let anything happen to you," he said softly. She nodded and took a breath.

"I know Doctor."

A loud hissing filled the air, ripping the two of them away from the silence and their mutual understanding. The two turned to see the creatures filing into the hallway in groups of two, marching in military formation. The two lines peeled off to line the walls around Veronica and the Doctor, surrounding them. More Siltherien marched into the room until the creatures spanning the two opposite walls were three deep. Five final Siltherien marched slowly into the room and Veronica recognised with a shudder that one of them was the one which had attacked her earlier in the day. The Doctor felt her shudder and squeezed her hand gently, reminding her of what he had said earlier. She looked into his calm face and nodded, finding the strength inside herself to square her shoulders and really look at the creatures which had surrounded them. The final four Siltherien had formed a line several paces in front of Veronica and the Doctor, hissing at each other. Veronica felt a morbid curiosity as she watched them talk through the upper mouth, while the lower one breathed evenly and deeply. She wondered what kind of creatures these could have evolved from, and what kind of atmosphere their own planet must have to make having two mouths advantageous. Of course, the air composition couldn't be that much different from that of earth, she thought wryly, considering the fact that they wanted to colonise her home planet. Now that she was able to think clearly when faced with these creatures, Veronica managed to see what they were wearing different clothes to what she had seen earlier – uniforms which looked military, black against their mottled brown and green skin. She noted with interest that one of them had a slightly different uniform, with a slash of red down the one side. She figured that this denoted who the leader was.

"Why have you called us here?" The leader hissed at the Doctor. "We have no quarrel with you Time Lord."

"Ah, little problem there," the Doctor said cheerfully, with an undercurrent of menace in his voice. "I take offense to the forced colonising of a planet and the genocide of a whole race. It's the bleeding heart liberal in me I'm afraid."

"Our planet is all but destroyed, Doctor, we merely seek a new home," the leader hissed, apparently trying to appeal to the Doctor's recently confessed 'bleeding heart'. Veronica couldn't help but snort derisively at that, drawing the attention of the room towards her. The creature which had attacked her earlier that day stepped forward and snarled, a deep guttural sound coming from deep in his chest. The Doctor squeezed Veronica's hand and brought his sonic screwdriver up to aim at the Siltherien, his face a stony mask of warning.

"Peace Al-reaksheish," the leader counselled, placing a restraining hand on the other creature's shoulder.

"You destroyed your own planet!" The Doctor nearly shouted, startling everyone in the room. "With your greed and list for everything. I'm sure your desire to rape and pillage and eat all you can played no part in your decision to settle here," he said sarcastically. Hisses of discontent filled the room as the Siltherien reacted to the Doctor's words.

"Silence!" Hissed the leader. He took a step forward. "While our quarrel is not with you, Doctor, we will make this our new home. It is time for the last of the Time Lords to die!"

"I wouldn't take another step if I were you," the Doctor remarked calmly as he pressed a button on the sonic screwdriver, sending a buzzing sound all around the room. Immediately all of the light cubes turned on, sending the creatures flinching away from the light where there was once darkness. The middle of the room was bathed in light, as were all the doorways which the creatures could have made their escape.

"Now I know that light physically hurts you, so I'll be kind and not set off the rest of the lights, wired directly above all of you," The Doctor commented as he drew Veronica closer into his side. "Now here's what's going to happen. You are going to communicate with your fellows by the blackout device and demand that they bring it, and your mode of transportation here. Then you will chart a course for Haykerena, the closest non inhabited planet. You will destroy your device and leave." The Doctor paused, and his voice lost all pretences of geniality. "And if you or any of your kind return here, I will not be so kind or forgiving."

The leader of the creatures hissed as he cringed away from the lights surrounding him. Veronica could hear the faint crackle of burning from behind her, and turned to investigate what it was. One of the Siltherien had decided to take his chances with the lights, and was shuffling awkwardly towards them, as its skin flaked off in alarming amounts. Veronica could smell the acrid scent of burning flesh and fought the urge to throw up as it became more and more putrid. Still the creature shuffled forwards, pain slowing its movements considerably. She nudged the Doctor and he twisted round slightly, keeping the sonic screwdriver trained on the leaders, while looking at the creature burning in its attempt to reach them. It was about two arms lengths away when there was a sudden flurry of motion, and Veronica found herself press against the creature's body, an arm painfully tight around her neck. Apparently, the pain hadn't affected its movements as much as it had made out. Veronica took hold of the arm in an attempt to pull it away from its restriction of her airways, and cringed a little as she felt some of the creature's skin slide off its arm onto her chest and stomach. The Doctor started towards them, but the creature pulled her violently back against itself as the leader hissed again.

"Soon Doctor Haelshireak will start to combust, setting fire to his own body. I think you know what that means for your companion, don't you Doctor?" Both its mouths grinned maliciously, pointed teeth showing.

"Let her go!" The Doctor demanded.

"Let us go and take this planet!" The leader countered. The Doctor's face twisted into a grimace. "Well, Doctor, the life of your companion, or the humans you claim to care about so deeply?"

"Doctor," Veronica choked out, demanding he look at her. The Siltherien loosened his grip, assuming she would do the good, self sacrificing thing for her people, allowing her to speak.

"Doctor, I'm sure that I'll be even more delightful char grilled," she said winking at him. A smile formed on his face and nodded once. Veronica twisted in the grip of the creature so its arm was extended palm upwards over her shoulder. Working on the assumption that the creatures had human like bones from their vaguely humanoid appearances she pulled the hand down roughly, pushing her shoulder up into the elbow joint. She heard a loud crack as the arm broke, and the Siltherien screamed out in pain. She let go of it, and turned to face it.

"Don't make me go Rambo on your ass," she cautioned, slipping into a loose fighting stance. "I will if I have to."

"Now it seems we're at an impasse," The Doctor sighed dramatically. "You will all start to feel the effects of enforced light exposure in the next few minutes, and it's only a few steps to my TARDIS. What do you suppose we do, hmm?"

Veronica watched from just outside the TARDIS as the Doctor supervised the dismantling of the blackout device. Only three Siltherien remained, two taking the dismantled pieces into their ship, while the last did the dismantling. When the last piece remained, the Doctor motioned to the creatures to leave. They did with a minimum of hissing, knowing that one of them would have been doomed to die, if they had to take out the piece themselves, but also knowing that their only sunlight blocking device had effectively been confiscated. Veronica and the Doctor watched them go in silence, then he pulled the last piece out of the ground. The results were instantaneous – as if a blanket had been lifted letting the sunlight back in.

"You are truly spectacular, Veronica Mars!" The Doctor exclaimed as he threw an arm around her. "Wonderful!"

Veronica felt her face heat up slightly at the compliment as they walked back to the TARDIS, his arm slung casually around her shoulders, her arm coming to rest naturally on his waist.

They stood in the TARDIS outside the Mars Investigations building, and Veronica felt more than a little reluctant to leave this man and his blue box. He took hold of her hand, pulling it up to his face, kissing her knuckles lightly. Veronica smiled sadly at him.

"I have to check on my friends," she said quietly, looking up at the Doctor. He nodded and let go of her hand.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Mars," he said gallantly as he got back into the TARDIS. She smiled as he saluted her and closed the door with a soft finality.

Veronica turned her back as the mysterious noise started, and wiped one rebellious tear away. She pulled open the door to the steps up to Mars Investigations, and walked in.

She knew that she had somehow been changed intrinsically by her experiences with the Doctor.

After several headache inducing hours on the phone with friends, and her father, convincing him that she was alright, and that the looting had just been opportunists taking advantage of an unexpected solar eclipse, that she had stayed in the office, and no, she wasn't going to hide out at home as the sheriff's office restored order, and no he should definitely NOT return home, that Leo was perfectly able to deal with this hiccup, Veronica exited Mars Investigations, locking the door behind her. She walked slowly down the stairs, her mind spinning at the volume of information she had been presented with in the last day. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she failed to see the blue box in her peripheral vision as she exited the main door. She turned away and started to walk towards her car, until a wolf whistle stopped her in her tracks. She turned around slowly to see the Doctor hanging out of the door of the TARDIS. She slowly raised an eyebrow.

"You forget something, Doc?" She asked. "Because I think we've had our full quota of alien invasions for the day."

"No, nothing forgotten. Well, actually, maybe something. Yes, let me just check." She frowned as he disappeared from her sight.

He ducked back out of the door, grinning wildly.

"I seem to have forgotten my companion," he grinned at her. "I don't know how I could have misplaced her."

"That's very careless of you, Doctor," Veronica smiled.

"Wait a second!" He exclaimed. "There she is!"

Veronica raised her eyebrow again, waiting for him to elaborate. She squashed the little spark of hope which blossomed in her chest.

"Would you like to see the universe, Miss Mars?" he asked her. Veronica's face widened in a large grin and she rushed back towards the Doctor. She couldn't help but throw her arms around him as he held the door open, and he wrapped his around her.

"I'll show you the universe, Veronica." He whispered into her ear.

"Nothing I'd like better." She whispered back. She had always wanted to get out of Neptune.

"So where would you like to go, Miss Veronica Mars?" The Doctor smiled as he jumped up to the console on the TARDIS. "There's one planet where the dominant intelligent life forms are cows – lovely conversationalists, even if they do have a preoccupation with the different types of grass and the nutrition each provides. Or there's a civilisation which lives at the very top of the highest trees in their world, traversing with the help of their primitive wings and some very inventive ropes. Or time!" His face lit up. "We could go to any time you'd like! The height of the Roman Empire, the swinging sixties! Victorian England, or perhaps the rocking and rolling 1950's?" He took hold of Veronica and started an impromptu swing dance with her. She laughed out loud as he swung her about to the 1950's rock and roll which started from some hidden speakers in the TARDIS. Veronica was very glad of the dance lessons she had taken as a child with Lilly, as she tried her best to keep up with the man who had likely learnt how to swing dance from its inventors. They laughed together, dancing without a care.

"We can go anywhere?" Veronica asked him as the song came to a close. The Doctor left his one hand on her hip, and kept hold of one of her hands, the other resting lightly on his shoulder. He smiled down on her.

"Yes, Veronica, we can go anywhere!"

**I'd love to know what you think!**


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